First World War Timeline: 1915

Date	Event
1915
19th January	Zeppelins bomb English towns	In the first airborne attack on British soil, Zeppelins bomb Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn, killing five civilians.
18th February	U-boat blockade starts	Blockade of Britain by German U-boats begins. All vessels are considered viable targets, including those from neutral countries.
19th February	Allied naval bombardment of the Dardanelles and Gallipoli begins	Russia appealed to Britain for assistance against the Ottomans, who were conducting an offensive in the Caucasus. Planning began for a naval demonstration in the Dardanelles to divert troops from the Caucasian theatre of operations
10th March	Neuve Chapelle offensive	The British Offensive at Neuve Chapelle begins. Allied losses amount to 12,800 in two days. Some of the blame falls on the poor quality and lack of British shells, initiating the ‘Shell Crisis’.
22nd April	Second Battle of Ypres	Begun in April and used primarily by the Germans as a means of diverting Allied attention from the Eastern Front, and as a means of testing the use of chlorine gas. It eventually concluded in failure in May.
25th April	Allied landing at Gallipoli	British, Australian, New Zealand and French troops made a pre-dawn amphibious landing on or near the Gallipoli peninsula. While the British landed at Helles on the southern tip of the peninsula, and the French at Kum Kale on the Turkish mainland, the Australians and New Zealanders landed at Anzac Cove. Although only lightly defended by the Turks, Anzac Cove was overlooked by precipitous terrain and was easily defended. Nevertheless, the Anzacs managed to gain a toehold, but in the following eight months of the campaign were only able to make little progress inland.
28th April	First Battle of Krithia, Gallipoli	British and French forces suffer 4,000 casualties for little gain.
2nd May	Baby 700, Gallipoli	Australian and New Zealand troops attacked the Turkish-occupied feature known as Baby 700. Turkish fire swept into the unsupported left flank of the assaulting infantry and the attack ground to a halt nowhere near its objective. It was a failure that cost the Australians approximately 1,000 casualties.
7th May	Lusitania sunk by U-boat	German U-boat torpedoes British liner Lusitania with the loss of American lives, creating a US-German diplomatic crisis.
18th May	Anzac, Gallipoli	Turkish forces mount a massive attack with 42,000 men, but are repulsed suffering 10,000 casualties.
23rd May	Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary	After a period of wavering and after secret negotiations with France and Great Britain where Italy negotiated for territory if victorious, Italy entered the war on the side of the Allies.
31st May	Zeppelin raid on London	The first Zeppelin raid on London kills seven and injures 35. British morale is shaken as Germany demonstrates it can attack the capital at will.
21st June	British troops re-occupy Aden	British troops reach the Euphrates in Mesopotamia, and re-occupy Aden.
6th August	Gallipoli – The August Offensives	A series of British attacks were launched along the Gallipoli peninsula in a renewed attempt to break out from the beach heads at Anzac and Cape Helles and capture the high ground of the Kilid Bair Plateau and the Sari Bair Range. The main assault of the offensive took place north of the ANZAC positions against the heights of Sari Bair. Other diversionary operations were conducted around Lone Pine and the Nek by the Australians, and at Suvla Bay by the British, who attempted to set up a supply base. The offensive fell short of its intended objectives.
6th August	Gallipoli – Battle of Lone Pine	On 6 August 1915 the 1st Division assaulted the Turkish positions at Lone Pine, which they ultimately captured, and spent the next three days defending it against repeated counter-attacks. So fierce was the fighting at Lone Pine that the 1st and 3rd brigades suffered 2,277 casualties. Seven Victoria Crosses were awarded to Australian troops for this action.
7th August	Gallipoli – Charge at the Nek	On 7 August, dismounted Australian light horsemen charged the Turkish trenches at the Nek in what was a callous and ultimately futile charge against machine-gun and rifle fire. The attack failed, with 234 of the 8th and 10th Light Horse regiments killed and some 140 wounded.
21st August	Gallipoli – Scimitar and Hill 60	The Battle of Scimitar and Hill 60, is the final British offensive in the Dardanelles. On Scimitar they are repelled and lose 5,000 men. Attacking Hill 60, the Australian 18th Battalion was reduced to one third of its original strength after less than a fortnight of action.
25th September	Battle of Loos	The Great Allied Offensive focuses on Loos and Champagne. At the Battle of Loos the British use gas for the first time, but the wind blows this over their own troops resulting in 2,632 casualties – seven are killed.
5th October	Anglo-French forces land at Salonika	Under German pressure to open up military rail links to Constantinople and the Middle East, the Austro-Hungarians step up their campaign against the Serbians. Anglo-French forces land at Salonika to counter allied German expansion in the Balkans.
12th October	British nurse Edith Cavell is executed	British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by German firing squad for helping POWs escape from Belgium to Holland. She becomes a popular martyr and British heroine.
31st October	Steel helmets introduced for British troops	For well over a year since the start of fighting, soldiers of most nations went into battle wearing cloth caps that offered no protection from modern weapons.
18th December	Haig Commander of BEF	Sir Douglas Haig replaces Sir John French as Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Force.
20th December	Evacuation of Gallipoli	Allies complete the evacuation of 83,000 troops from Suvla Bay and ANZAC Cove in Gallipoli. Not one soldier or sailor is killed in the withdrawal and the Turkish are unaware of the evacuation taking place.